Today, the Integration Minister of Sweden, Nyamko Sabuni, presented the proposed Bill for a integration policy in Sweden. It states that the goverment will invest SEK 920 million (roughly CAD 150 million) for this policy and details a number of new measures to facilitate a quicker economic integration of immigrants in the country. The most important changes include giving the Swedish Public Employment Service the overall responsibility for the integration process, a new settlement action plan (my rough translation) drafted for the individual immigrant, and a settlement pilot will be assigned to guide the immigrant to the new labour market, as well as increased efforts to teach the newcomers basic civics about Swedish society.
From my perspective, I'd have to say that the only really promising part of this package is the addition of the new settlement pilot. This can be non-state actors (private companies or ngo:s), and if I understand the proposal correclty, the immigrant will be free to chose this guide freely. That would certainly be a step in the right direction. However, the funding system gives cause for pause, as it were. Guides will be remunerated according to how fast they can arrange employment for their clients. This will undoubtedly lead to "creaming" (as it already did in Canada), where agencies will a) only help those who can be quickly placed in work and b) place them in whatever work is quickly available, regardless of the competency of the individual. While it is important for immigrants to find work, the system will not solve the issue of under-employment, i.e. the fabled engineer/doctor who drives a taxi cab.
As for the Swedish Public Employment Service as the main coordinator, I really cannot say how great effect this move will have. On the one side, it is true that coordination of the efforts of government agencies have been severly lacking. On the other side, there is plenty of evidence indicating that the Swedish Public Employment Service has a tradition of paternalism vis-a-vis its immigrant clients, so it seems to me that its competence in this regard can be questioned. On that note, it is unclear to what extent the new individualist "settlement plans" will differ from the similiarly individual introdution plans that municipalities were obligated to draft when receiving immigrants, plans have been around for almost 20 years with very little effect (they are also comparable to the individual action plans for long term unemployed - a quantitative measure with absolutely no impact for employability whatsoever).
Finally, even if this plan, insofar as the settlement guides might succeed where government agencies have failed, might do something for the quicker economic integration of immigrants, one has to ask if the government has any plans for those immigrants are among the permanent unemployed and under-employed and who have been in the country for 10 years and more. In that sense, Swedish integration policy is still focused so much on newcomers that it tends to be blind for the barriers that persist for immigrants with longer residency in the country...
Hi!
ReplyDeleteOne quick comment. The settlement guide can not say no to an immigrant that choses him/her. The Employment agency are going to use a new form of procurement (upphandling) where the refugee immigrant, not the agency, choose the guide and where the guide, once accepted, cannot turn anyone down. It is an effort to avoid creaming. In a couple of years we will see if it works as planned.
And if I may add one more thing. The problem in sweden is not that refugee immigrants do work with low wages under their capacity, the main problem is to get any kind of work. 30 percent has a job after 3 years.
Emil, hi!
ReplyDeleteNice to see you and thank you very much for the clarification. I think such a procurement rule will be most beneficial. It is also true that the main Swedish problem is the difficulty for immigrants to get into the labour market in the first place, and I agree that this could very well be a good step in that direction (the most promising government initiative I've seen for some time, at any rate). It is certainly necessary to address it forthwith and I welcome the attention the problem is receiving.
But it is not sufficient to resolve the problem of ethnic segregation in the labour market as a whole. To do that, it is necessary to address both unemployment and under-employment in a comprehensive fashion. In that regard, the Swedish integration debate has been singarly focused on just that one aspect of the larger problem.
On a side note, I can add that I find it interesting that these reforms come now, just before I am about to do the field work for my dissertation. I have a feeling that I will have reason to revisit Sweden very soon after I'm done to investigate to what extent these initiatives have had an impact on the field.